5 Ways to Boost Your Email Sender Reputation & Avoid Spam

Struggling to get replies to your email campaigns? Your email sender reputation could be the reason. A poor score might cause your emails to be blocked or sent to the spam folder, where your audience won’t see them. In this article, you’ll find 5 tips to improve your email sender reputation for better deliverability.

What is your email sender reputation?

Your email sender reputation is a score given to you based on how you send emails and how much your audience interacts with them. Email providers use metrics like open and reply rates, sending frequency, etc., to decide your sender reputation.

With a poor sender reputation, email providers are likelier to block or send your emails to the spam folder. This hurts your email deliverability and ruins the performance of your email campaigns.

Your overall sender reputation is made up of 2 parts:

1. Your email domain reputation:

This is the reputation linked to your email domain, which is the part that comes after the ‘@’ symbol in your email address. 👇

2. Your IP reputation:

This is the reputation linked to the IP address you use to send emails. Your IP address can be shared between senders from different companies, or you can have one just for yourself.

You can find your IP Address on Google. 👇

How to check your email sender reputation

A strong sender reputation will land your emails in the inbox and get you replies. To check this, you can use your IP address or domain name (for example, lempire.co).

Here's what you should check:

✅ your MX records are set up

✅ SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are configured

✅ your deliverability score is > 80

✅ you're not on any blacklists

Tools you can use:

Use SenderScore to check your technical setup

Use lemwarm to monitor your deliverability score 👇

5 ways to improve your sender reputation & email deliverability

Your sender reputation is critical in deciding if your emails will land in your audience’s inbox or the spam folder. By improving your sender reputation, you increase the chances of your emails landing in the inbox, reaching your audience, and getting more replies & conversions!

In short, focusing on your sender reputation boosts your email deliverability and campaign success!

Here are 5 ways to improve your sender reputation and boost your email deliverability:

1. Keep a healthy email list

To protect your sender's reputation, only contact valid email addresses. Sending emails to invalid addresses increases your bounce rate or lands them in spam traps.

Spam traps are fake email addresses added to email lists online to check whether you're sending emails to a verified list.

This ruins your email sender reputation, lowers your deliverability score, and sends your emails to spam!

Here are 3 ways you can keep your email list healthy:

• verify your email list using tools like Debounce or Bouncer
• avoid buying email lists online
• check your email list for typos like these to make sure your email is delivered 👇

2. Use proper sending practices

How you send emails tells email providers if you’re a spammer or a genuine sender. Sending emails at a natural pace that matches human behavior boosts your sender reputation and helps you avoid spam.

Here are 3 email sending practices to boost your sender reputation:

• send between 50-200 emails per day, per address
• don’t send all emails at once; spread them throughout the day
• increase your sending volume gradually like this 👇

3. Write spam-free email content

Write high-quality, relevant emails that your audience will find valuable and engaging. Your emails should solve a pain point, and your audience should have the option to opt-out if they don’t want to receive them. A relationship with your audience prevents spam complaints and boosts your sender reputation.

Here are 3 tips for writing valuable emails:

• your subject line should be consistent with your email content
• add an unsubscribe button for people who aren’t interested in your emails
• avoid spam-trigger words like these to prevent landing in spam 👇

4. Use a dedicated IP address

If you share your IP address with a group of companies, their bad email practices can damage your sender reputation. A dedicated IP address gives you complete control over your sender reputation. Other senders won’t affect your reputation, and you can keep your email deliverability high by following best practices.

Here are 3 tips to boost your sender reputation with a dedicated IP address:

• use a warm-up & deliverability booster before-during-after sending emails
• increase your sending volume gradually after the warm-up phase
• complete your technical setup on this new IP address before sending emails

Check out the key differences between using a shared & dedicated IP address for your outreach 👇

5. Warm up your email address

If you’re using a new email domain, don’t start with your email campaigns immediately. Warm up your email first to build your sender reputation and avoid landing in spam.

Email warm-up gradually increases the emails sent from your account to boost your email engagement, reputation, and deliverability. You could think about the warm-up as a protection tool for your emails.

Here’s how email warm-up improves your deliverability:

• helps you avoid the spam folder
• shows email providers that your emails aren't spam
• matches "human behavior,” which boosts your sender reputation

Sending natural, personalized warm-up emails like these boosts your sender reputation 👇

Bonus Tip: Fill out the details on your email address

Having a clear sender identity helps you build trust with your audience & with email providers. This increases your chances of getting replies and prevents spam complaints.

Quick checklist for a strong sender reputation in the long run

In the long run, keeping a strong sender reputation can be complicated. But with the right tools, you’ll have higher email deliverability, get more replies and create more growth opportunities!

Before sending your next email campaign, use this quick sender reputation checklist to ensure you land in the inbox:

☑️ complete your technical setup

☑️ verify your email list

☑️ warm up your email address

☑️ follow email sending best practices

☑️ monitor your email deliverability before-during-after sending campaigns

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